Status and progress in deployment optimization of firepower units

With the application of information technology to the military field, the advantages of information-based military operations based on network-centric warfare theory become more obvious. The deployment of firepower units is a key issue in networked military operations, which involves how to substantially apply the limited resources to maximize the defending abilities of the firepower units. It is one of the non-linear optimization issues with multiple constraints. The deployment optimization of firepower units (DOFU) and their approaches in networked fire control system (NFCS) are reviewed in this paper. Firstly, the fundamental research status of DOFU is reviewed. Secondly, the mathematical model of the deployment of firepower unit is summarized based on three aspects including deployment space, constraints and objective function. Besides, research progress of DOFU methods, which consist of encoding, constraints-handling, multiobjective-handling and the algorithm, is discussed. Finally, the conclusions of the key issues and the development trend of DOFU are elaborated.